Caffeine and adolescents, a relationship with dangerous consequences
There's a lot harmful practices in adolescents that are easily recognizable, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. However, others are seen as normal since there is no rule that prohibits their use in children and are also presented as a regular product in homes.
A good example is the coffee, a drink that is part of breakfast or snacks for many teenagers. A consumption that has multiple consequences in the development of the adolescent, who also can begin to develop a tolerance to this product that makes him take more quantities to achieve the same effect. The early start in drinking this drink is the beginning of a dependence on caffeine.
Effects of coffee
Caffeine is a beverage that activates the nervous system and whose daily consumption can end up generating dependence. Take every day a cup of this drink in the morning causes the body to get used to this ingredient, so the day in which it is absent, the body does not respond in the same way.
Also, keep in mind that the body of the adolescent also makes it more dangerous to drink this drink. The weight and height of this sector of the population makes them more prone to the negative consequences of coffee since the same amount as in the adult would not have harmful effects, in it can cause health problems related to sleep and dependence on this product.
Losses of connections
A study conducted by the National Science Foundation of Switzerland and later reviewed in the journal Pediatrics, he tried to find out to what extent coffee affected adolescents. These researchers started from the basis that during adolescence numerous neuronal connections are lost that are created during childhood and that a good dream makes this process less aggressive in young people.
The intake of coffee causes a worse rest, with which the losses of neuronal connections would be greater than in those cases where this product is absent and the sleep is repairing. For this, they measured the neuronal connections of a group of adolescent rats who drank coffee and others who simply drank drinking water.
The results confirmed the initial hypothesis. The coffee making caused a Lack of sleep that resulted in a lower neuronal connection, this in turn caused a slower brain activity than those cases where drinking water was taken.
Too many drinks with caffeine
The review carried out by the Pediatrics magazine He tried to find the main sources of caffeine in adolescents. In this research it was found that too many products with this ingredient are present in the market and that they are usually present in the lives of young people as cola drinks, sodas, coffee products such as ice creams or cakes of this flavor, etc.
Although the most worrisome was to find that adolescents drink caffeine mainly through energy drinks that have become a product increasingly demanded by young people. In recent years these items have become in the past something usual in the diet of people between 13 and 18 years who consume at any time of day.
This repeated consumption of energy drinks causes an excessive dependence on caffeine that in many cases is not noticed since these products are not as recognizable as a Cup of coffee.
Damián Montero
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